"That is happiness; to be disolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." - Willa Cather

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Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Mega-Llorca: All of the training, none of the guilt

I recently read an aritcle in Politiken, which discussed a woman who loved running marathons and how her guilt made her "see the light", give up running and return to doing things on weekends that normal women do: watching the kids and tending to the house.

Of course this article would never have been written about a man and that pissed me off.

But I DO sometimes feel guilty about training a lot - and the guilt stems from SR not being there with me. Having kids has out of necessity led us to a schedule where SR and I almost never can run, bike or swim together because one of us has to watch the kids. And when I'm out there longer than him, I feel bad (well a little).

But on the island of Mallorca, everything was suddenly different. We had a full time live-in babysitter along for the week (AND she's interested in being an Au Pair for us in the future!). So SR and I had a large part of the day together to train with our triathlon club and then the second half of the day was spent with the kids. What a dream!

And guess what - the kids loved it, too!

Just to give a little background, Mallorca/Majorca/Mega Llorca (the third being The Lorax's name for it) is a large island off of the east coast of Spain, where Catalan is the official language, but Majorquis is the local dialect. It is an island of extremely diverse geography and is filled with tourists from all over Europe, though the Brits were the ones who made their presence most obvious.

Anyhow, you know it wasn't Americans who wanted "mushy peas". Must be the Atlantic that divides us because SR thought they sounded good and Natali and I were both like - "um, gross!"

So our training schedule looked like this (some of this was on my own or just with SR and/or Anette):

Day 1: 80km cycle in Formentor mountains

Day 2: 3 hour barefoot run on the beach

Day 3: 72 km cycle flat

Day 4: Half marathon on sand and in Albufuera trails

Day 5: 101 km mountain cycle (and there's proof just below that I did it - the longest ride I've ever been on and SR's second longest)

Day 6: 4 hour barefoot run on sand (yep, I was alone - SR left with Natali one day early)

(what a difference from my last pregnancy where I coulnd't run a step bewteen weeks 26 and 36 due to SI joint problems)

Here are SR and Anette on our 101 km ride.

Here is SR on that same ride.The heights on our mountain rides scared the shit out of me, to put it mildly. I thus used my brakes way too much on the downhills, but it got better with time.

Here I am in the Formentor Mountains. I had adjusted my handles so I sat more upright and biking was no longer uncomfortable.

And training wasn't all we did.

Okay, I just have to say one thing about the above picture - I must be one of the only women in the world who looks better in a bikini 28 weeks pregnant than I do non-pregnant. I guess I better enjoy it for the very short time it lasts. Just in case you couldn't tell, The Lorax really is eating an apple naked in the ocean with sandals on.I can't recommend Mallorca enough, despite it being very touristy. Please feel free to contact me if you want advice on a trip to this gorgeous island.

I got so sick of my running songs while I was there. But on my run today, I really got into a new song by Architecture in Helsinki called "Contact High".

11 comments:

I so agree Mallorca is a fun place to spend a holiday! Actually, the funny thing is that this is where we spent ours when I was 5 months pregnant with Malo. We did not take our bikes, but ran and hiked a lot. Which made me want to see which photos I put on my blog back then, and all I got was that : http://mapp-running-around.blogspot.com/2009/07/we-have-been-busy.html... only two photos for month 5, and I did not even mention Mallorca. Could it be that I was even more of a slopy blogger back then than I am now? Now, THAT would be an achievement! Unrelated : I take it you're not planning on coming trail running in France this summer anylonger?!

Was the article about the ridiculousness of rigid gender roles when it comes to child-rearing and housekeeping? I'd prefer a messy house to giving up a sport I love.

Your vacation sounds amazing although kind of exhausting!

Question about the mushy peas picture: Do you get bistro gravy or salad? Those don't sound like comparable sides. I'm not a fan of mushy peas in general, but I do enjoy it when I'm in London eating my fish and chips.

You look so cute in your bikini. I'm kind of jealous of your beach vacation. What fun!

Okay, this is barely even tangentially related, but I'm tired (just for today) of hearing women complain about how hard they have it. For example, in the US right now, more girls than boys graduate from high school, more go to college and they get more scholarships (both academic and athletic) for more money and they get more grants and scholarships. A higher percentage of women graduate college and they get more degrees in chemistry, biology, chemical engineering, architecture and electrical engineering (and will soon surpass men in civil and mechanical engineering). More women go to graduate school, to medical school and law school. Once they get out of school, women make up over half of the workforce. They own more businesses than men and they are more likely to get business loans. Childless women on average earn more than childless men (the "mommytrackers" skew things). They are more likely to have health insurance and live longer than men. They're also 30 times less likely to go to jail.

Oh that "holiday" sounds wonderful - esp with the triathlon training camp thrown in. I've never been to one of those. The baysitter/au pair sounds like a wonderful idea to regain some balance with SR - and nice work rockin' that bikini!!!

I am with Steve (ouch, did I say thast?). All that feminism is like racism in US, scewed. It started alright, then got sidetracked to "too much". Now single white male is a minority:)You do look good, and the place is great.

That looks like a fantastic vacation! What a great idea to have someone watch the kids that long so that you could train together, though I do think you are a little crazy for running for three hours, barefoot, on the beach. :-)

Mapp - So cool that you've been there! At least now you know I didn't just write the post to induce jealousy among my readers, but so that I could look back and remember.

Steve, well, I didn't mean to make a comment about the unfairness of being a woman in general. Heck, being a woman is great in this day and age. BUT at least in Denmark it is women (moms) who are made to feel guilty about their exercising and involvement in sports and not dads. That is why 99% of the members of the Klub 100 (Danes who have run 100 marathons) are men. It is socially acceptable to run multiple marathons as a man here, but not so much as a woman. That is just the way the society is here and it bothers me. So there ya have it.

Hello from Rude Skov

Photo by Stine Sophie Winckel

...

My name is Tracy. I am a physician scientist from the USA, living with my husband and two young boys in Denmark. I work as a post-doc fellow at Næstved Hospital. I have a scientific interest in vision loss, vision loss during exercise, exercise, running during pregnancy, MAF training as well as nutrition and health for athletes. I also have a love for music, physics, statistics, cycling, yoga, cross-country skiing, bla bla bal.

I was a member of Team USA at the IAU World Championships in Ultra Trail Running in 2013 in Wales. I am now training to run with Team Denmark at the IAU World Championships in Annency, France in May 2015.